1. Field
The present work relates generally to wireless communication and, more particularly, to avoiding frequency interference from another wireless communication technology co-resident in a Bluetooth product.
2. Background
The following documents are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,314; and Specification of the Bluetooth System (v3.0+HS).
Bluetooth technology uses the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band which is available worldwide. Other technologies use bands immediately above or below the 2.4 GHz band. These other technologies (e.g. LTE, WiMAX, 4G technologies) may be added into the same physical product as Bluetooth technology, so isolation may be needed to protect the Bluetooth receiver from interference caused by transmissions from the added technologies. Depending on relevant filter characteristics, some frequencies may not be usable for Bluetooth reception during intervals when the added technologies are transmitting. As a result, the incidence of Bluetooth paging or inquiry failures may become unacceptably high to the end user.
Some known solutions use priority signaling to disable the added technology transmitter(s) to prevent interference with operation of the Bluetooth receiver. However, Bluetooth page scanning requires a 1% duty cycle, and the corresponding disabling of the added technology could degrade that technology's throughput and, potentially, the throughput of an entire cell site. Other known solutions extend the timeout periods for Bluetooth paging and/or inquiry by up to 4 times the normal period.
It is desirable in view of the foregoing to provide for techniques that protect a Bluetooth receiver from interference caused by transmissions associated with added technologies, while avoiding disadvantages of known solutions.